OTN Wrote:
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> All rules and instructuons in the Railroad
> industry, an in the Military ,have to be written
> for the lowest mentality involved.

Right you are, OTN! Remember, even the officials are required to (partly) understand the GCOR. Case in point: a few years ago on the "Railway" I work for, a few TMs decided they needed to show the new Terminal Ops Manager that they were gung-ho officials, ready to spring into action against the evil that is TY&E. So, to demonstrate their superior knowledge and skills in hunting and trapping the wiley TY&E, they decided to pull a banner test on one of the main tracks right in front of the yard office (that so all the rest of their bretheren AND the mighty Terminal Ops Manager could marvel first hand at their skill).

So, after notifying the "(unnamed)Sub" dispatcher of their plan, he ensured that the Westbound control signal at CP Hanshaw was not cleared and thus was dispaying a red signal. The assembled officials (and a few curious spectators) at the yard waited with baited breath for the next unsuspecting train to come along and spring their trap.

Soon thereafter, our hero, JJ-, arrives at Hanshaw on an approach and stops his train safely - and smartly I might add - and tones up the dispatcher. Over the radio comes the dispatcher's voice with the ominous words, "(4-letter railway name + 4-digit engine number), after stopping, you have authority to pass the signal diplaying stop indication at . . ." After a successful readback of the authority, our hero, ever ready to comply with the rules, nudges his train ever so slowly and begins his journey into the unknown at restricted speed. Restricted speed, that is, until the leading wheels of his train passes the next signal dispaying a proceed indication. Then, it was off to the races (at the posted speed for that section of track) on to the required stop at Keddie Jct.

Yes friends, our intrepid band of officials knew the GCOR so well that they "assumed" the intervening intermediate signal that lay between CP Hanshaw and CP Keddie Jct. just somehow "didn't apply" and the limits of restricted speed just HAD to apply from Hanshaw all the way to Keddie Jct. But our hero actually KNEW the rules and so his speed increase was duly within the rules - and so was the resultant gore and horror in front of the yard office.

After announcing loud and clear over the radio that he is now proceeding on a yellow aspect, the officials began scattering out of the way like cats being herded with an air horn, and the helpless banner was skewered on the knuckle and met its demise that day (it was burned later that day with full honors). One of the assembled geniuses even had the nerve to say to our hero, "but you could have stopped in time anyway . . ."

The best part - watching said officials being pulled from service and marched off by the new Terminal Ops Manager to go "pee in the cup" and knowing that they their "bad day" had only just begun . . .

'nuff said.

FS